The present invention relates to a hanger system especially useful for distributing newspapers in plastic bags, however, the invention is also applicable to other uses and fields.
It is well known that newspapers may be distributed to a customer by folding a newspaper, placing the folded newspaper in a plastic bag, and then throwing the bag containing the newspaper onto a porch, steps, or a driveway. The plastic bag helps protect the newspaper from rain, snow, and other elements. In an effort to increase the speed and efficiency of the foregoing delivery of newspapers in plastic bags, special bags and hangers for the bags have been developed, especially when the newspaper delivery person delivers the newspapers from an automobile or other vehicle.
A conventional way of assembling the bags for use in distributing newspapers is as follows. Each bag is formed of two rectangular sheets of plastic joined along the bottom and two side edges such that a pocket is formed with an opening along the top edge. One rectangular sheet is slightly longer than the other rectangular sheet: such that a flap extends above the pocket opening. The longer sheet is scored in a line in the region proximate to the pocket opening, such that the pocket portion may be disattached from the flap portion along the score line. Several of such bags are typically joined together along their respective flaps.
In one known embodiment, a cardboard handle is stapled to each of the flaps of the overlapping bags, with the cardboard handle having a hook so that the entire assembly may be carried by the finger of a person and may also be selectively suspended from the mounting of an automobile rear view mirror. A disadvantage of the stapled cardboard handle is that the assembly process is very labor intensive. The handles are not reuseable and therefore the materials tend to become expensive. Also the cardboard and staples present a minor disposal problem.
In yet another embodiment, the flap portions of the bags are fused by a heat stabbing process. A pair of holes created by heat pins extends through the flap sections of each bag and are adapted to be suspended from a wire hanger which in turn is suspended from a cord wrapped around the mounting of an automobile rear view mirror. Such a system also includes a wire spreader that maintains the cord in a horizontally separated condition below the rear view mirror so as to inhibit the assembly from twirling when the automobile is in motion. A disadvantage of the wire hanger system is that the wire hangers are relatively expensive to make and are often misplaced or lost by newspaper distributors.